American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines programme expands to UAE

12th April 2017

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The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association (AHA/ASA) is launching its acclaimed Get With The Guidelines in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is the first country outside the United States to implement this cardiovascular hospital care quality improvement programme. This AHA/ASA programme will benefit patients by providing public and private hospitals quality improvement professional consultation, workshops and guideline-based webinars at all stages of implementation.

First launched in the USA in 2002, Get With The Guidelines is an evidence-based, in-hospital continuous quality improvement process designed to improve treatment and prevent future cardiovascular and stroke events through consistent adherence to the latest scientific treatment guidelines.

While variations of the programme are currently benefiting thousands of patients in 160 hospitals across China and Brazil, the launch in the UAE—supported by the Emirates Cardiac Society—is the first time the Get With The Guidelines subscription programme is available outside North America. To date, more than 2,000 hospitals in the USA have implemented at least one module, benefitting more than six million patients.

“The AHA has always worked to make a difference in the lives of patients with cardiovascular disease in the USA and around the world. The global expansion of our Get With the Guidelines programme is the next step in our journey towards fulfilling the goal to build healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke,” says Sidney C Smith, Jr, a past president of the AHA and a global expert in quality improvement science and programmes. “In the 15 years since we introduced the programme in the USA, Get With The Guidelines has proven its efficacy in transforming patient care and has improved patient outcomes, lowered healthcare costs due to reduced readmission, and increased efficiency and effectiveness across the continuum of care. I am thrilled that international hospitals will now have access to this valuable programme.”

Get With The Guidelines programmes rely on an online, interactive assessment and reporting system, which supports data submissions while tracking a hospital’s performance in delivering guidelines-based treatment.

Participating hospitals collect data and monitor their compliance with guidelines-based therapies to improve care according to best practices. Data collection and feedback reporting are performed online using the AHA’s interactive Patient Management Tool.

Together, these tools and processes help hospitals and providers learn the correct treatment, translate guidelines into practice, and report the results. Data from Get With The Guidelines have resulted in more than 375 scientific publications that have advanced cardiovascular health.

Commenting on the launch, Abdullah Shehab, president of the Emirates Cardiac Society, says: “The Emirates Cardiac Society is pleased to support the American Heart Association as it expands this evidence-based programme to the UAE. As the country looks to position itself at the forefront of healthcare provision in the region, it is critical that we bring in the right tools that will help curb the effects of the non-communicable diseases—especially cardiovascular disease—and improve outcomes for both patients and providers. We are confident that Get With The Guidelines will play a key role in improving the health of our community.”

Through programmes such as Get With The Guidelines, the American Heart Association works to support the World Health Organization (WHO) goal to reduce premature death and disability from non-communicable diseases by 25% by 2025.